About TOG

The Older Gamers are members of a community for people that still enjoy playing computer games, but are in a bit of an older age bracket than the ‘stereotypical’ gamer. TOG is for gamers who (regretfully) can’t go out boozing every weekend, because we have partners, and are left at our PC’s playing games after a quiet dinner or putting the kids to bed. TOG is for busy workers who need to de-stress from their busy jobs by shooting a few players each night. TOG is also for people who have retired and find themselves with plenty of time to indulge a hobby of online gaming.

TOG is for gamers whose memories might go back to playing Pacman on an Atari 2600; gamers who had as much fun playing Pitfall on the C-64 as they do playing the latest games today - although the nostalgia junkies might still be running a C-64 a simulator somewhere on their PC. A lot of us who started their gaming addiction on those machines are still around going strong on all the latest games.

TOG is for gamers who are passionate about their hobby of PC games (particularly online multiplayer games), but who want to escape or separate themselves from the abusive, disruptive and disrespectful behaviour, usually attributed to younger players, that is so often encountered when gaming online.

We have found that it is simply a lot more enjoyable to play your favourite genre, be it FPS, RPG, MMO or RTS with people you have something in common with. Eventually these people become a new circle of online friends, so you will be playing with and against people you know. Even offline TOG members often get together for LAN events, a night at the pub for a few beers.

This is exactly what TOG is about: a friendly, vibrant community full of PC gaming addicts from around the world, who are old enough to know how to enjoy ourselves properly!

TOG is more than a gaming clan. Our large member base is active in many more games than a typical clan might be involved in, and our focus is more on our community rather than on an individual game. One of the great things about TOG is that anytime an interesting game comes along, you can almost guarantee there will be a host of players ready to go! For many of our games, however, we do compete (sometimes fielding multiple teams) in online competitions. In these games that have a competitive aspect about them, we are active in the exact same manner as other clans. In MMORPG games, TOG will usually form at least one Guild/Player Association/Outfit (whatver term is approriate).

The average age of TOG members is somewhere in the mid 30s, but we have had people join up the day they turn 25, and we have many players in their 40s, and some in their 50s, 60s and even 70s.

We are all pretty relaxed players and although we play certain games competitively and are serious about enjoying our gaming, skill level and ‘commitment to a game’ are not a requirements to play with TOG. We expect all our members to be respectful of all other members (until you get to know them, then the ribbing can start!), regardless of their skill at a particular game.

TOG is an international community, and we have members from many different countries. As the majority of our members are Australian and American, the language used in our forums and on the website is English. TOG was initially formed in Australia in September 2002.

Most competition matches take place in the evening of the timezone of the competition, so that often precludes players from other countries participating in those games together. Having said that, TOG does have several shift workers; often a shift worker from one timezone will end up playing more with the TOGs in another country. For MMO games that are running 24/7, there is ‘local timezone’ action often all week long, but we typically try to meet each other across timezones at a mutually agreeable time on the weekends. TOG will choose a specific server at the launch of most MMO games, in order to ensure all our players can hook up together at some point.

There is no limit to which games are and will be played at TOG - we play whatever games our members choose! Obviously not everyone has every game, but all our members are keen gamers and all have different likes and dislikes. You will almost certainly find someone else at TOG who has the same gaming interests that you do. Even noteworthy singleplayer games can be discussed at length in TOG.

We tend to only form a gaming division for the games that we compete in, are strong in growth or are in someway active in.

Each game that has its own division & each division will have its own “Divisional Captain” who is responsible for all the operational functions related to that game, e.g. ladder challenges, postings on public forums, recruiting, helping new players get settled, keeping the division ‘vibrant’, etc.

This person is being referred to as the “Division Captain” (DC) & may be assisted by a “Division Vice Captain” (DVC). If the division is a large one, there may be multiple Teams (in the case of FPS games) or Guilds (in the case of MMO games. These are headed by Squad Leaders & Guild Leaders, but the overall running & final decisions are made the the Division Captain.

If you are interested in a specific game pleased read the “Stickies” in the game forum you are interested in. These “Stickies” contain all the information you need to play the game with TOG. Certain games, especially the ones played competitively, will have requirements and administration procedures associated with them to make things run smoothly.

For a complete list of Gaming Divisions and their Captains, click here.